BRING BACK OUR ICE PRINCE

Apparently the hype around the Bring Back Our Girls movement is regaining momentum after the buzz around it seemed to have died down for a bit. However, in my opinion, it’s not just the two-hundred-plus girls from Chibok community that are missing, there’s someone else that seems to have gone off the radar completely for some time now.

His name is Panshak Henry Zamani, he was born in Minna, Niger State but moved to the ancient city of Jos, Plateau State at the tender age of two. He’s got brown skin, a bit lanky with a middle-belt accent. He is a hip-hop recording artiste, with a bit of a stint in acting too. He rose to fame after releasing Oleku, one of Nigeria’s most remixed songs of all time. He won the Hennessy Artistry Club Tour in 2009. Some of his accolades include one BET Award, one Ghana Music Award, Headies Awards, Nigerian Entertainment Awards and two Channel O Music Video Awards.

He used to be signed to Chocolate City Music under which he dropped his debut album, Everybody Loves Ice Prince in 2011. The album included singles like Oleku, Superstar and Magician. The year 2013 saw this artiste release his sophomore album, Fire of Zamani. The album had singles like Aboki, I Swear, Gimme Dat and a few other banging singles. Shortly after Audu Maikori stepped down at the helm at Chocolate City Music, Jude ‘MI’ Abaga was announced as the new Chairman of Chocolate City with this artiste as Vice Chairman.

Did I mention that he’s also the father of a handsome little boy, Jamal, who he had with a lady who goes by the name Bimbo Babatunde. He’s said to have been romantically involved with female rapper, Eva Alordiah, when he first came to Lagos.

His musical projects include Everybody Loves Ice Prince (2011), Fire of Zamani (2013) and the Trash Can EP which he released in 2015.

There were rumours that Panshak Zamani was no longer a part of Chocolate City, the imprint under which he achieved pretty much all of his success. He went on to confirm the rumours in an interview on a popular radio station in Lagos during their midday show. Zamani stated unequivocally that his contract with Chocolate City ended two years ago but remained with the label for purely personal/relationship purposes. A few months later, he officially went public with his Super Cool Cats label and was said to be on the verge of signing a new act, Jilex Anderson. Zamani went as far as introducing Jilex Anderson to the audience at a show at the University of Benin.

Panshak Zamani was also rumoured to be working on launching an urban fashion line as well as his third studio album which he has already titled Jos To The World. It is at this point that Panshak Zamani went “missing”. Some of his latest singles including No Mind Dem, Feelings, Chike (which features Korede Bello, and sounds like an annoying remix to Olamide’s Abule Sowo) and most recently, Excellency featuring DJ Buckz which he put out a very below par video for (going by his previously-set standards).

For an artiste who has been touted by many to be a “Candy Rapper”, I still loved and defended him on every platform I was on. A lot of his music in the past always came off as cheesy and wanting to appeal more to the ladies as well as the fast-tempo-music-lovers. Obviously he was able to get away with it, but it seems the fans are now wiser. It almost feels like he has failed to reinvent himself or at least up the ante music-wise. A lot of times his flow sounds the same, while at other times, he’s singing people to sleep. For pete’s sake, who is this impostor??!

With the young cats like Ycee, Dremo, Zoro and a few others looking to steal the rap crown from hip-hop household names like Olamide, Phyno and co who are also not slacking as they are also working tirelessly to be in our faces and ears every single time, Panshak is steady falling my hand o!

So this doesn’t come off as aimless and useless ranting, ask yourself these pertinent questions:

What genre of music does Ice Prince really do?Would you really define Ice Prince as a rapper?Would Ice Prince be able to hold his own against the younger, hungrier and fierier rappers in the game right now?Having answered these questions, it wouldn’t be totally out of place for me to conclude that Panshak Zamani is gradually slipping into oblivion. Call me crazy, but I don’t recognize the impostor passing himself off as the Ice Prince I used to love and adore so please, before it’s too late, BRING BACK OUR ICE PRINCE!!!!!!

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Chuks Asoegwu – A political scientist by degree, a writer, OAP, event host, lyricist, sports lover ,social commentator and radio junkie. You can connect with him on social media where he shares his “explicit” thoughts on issues spanning across entertainment, sports and politics.